A tandem axle vehicle utilizes a forward axle and a rear axle. Typically, at least one of the axles is driven and in some cases both axles are driven.
If both axles are driven, it can be desirable to selectively disconnect one of the axles during times of low tractive requirements. This is preferable since during times of low tractive requirements, the axle that remains engaged can handle the tractive requirements of the vehicle by itself. It can be appreciated that when an axle is disconnected from the driveline, spinning and friction losses decrease, which results in increased driveline efficiency.
Systems to disconnect, and then reconnect, a drive axle are well known. However, many of them suffer from being complex, difficult to manufacture, difficult to repair, expensive to maintain and they cannot be retrofitted to existing vehicles.
In view of the disadvantages of the prior art systems, it would be advantageous to provide a relatively simple, inexpensive, easy to use and easy to manufacture system for selectively engaging and disengaging an axle in a tandem axle system.